Field of Marigolds UG1

Field of Marigolds

Five Weeks Given just over a month to complete, we were assigned with the task of creating an archive. In this particular studio we were to archive a type of plants and produce spaces that stored dead plants, allowed them to be viewed in a gallery alongside water colors done by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in a gallery, and places that showed the live plants as well.

Final Model 4ply Museum Board 3/32”= 1’-0” 3” x 12”

My project relied on the connection that the Cempazuchitl, a type of marigold, has with the Day of the Dead in Mexico and the celebration of life that goes along with it.

Thesis and Perspectives Rhino, Illustrator 19” x 24”

In looking at ways in which people celebrate life, more specifically, the celebration of the Day of the Dead in Mexico, my architecture aims to invoke reflection as people are taken through this walking experience that looks to both life and death. To begin, the entrance of the form is thick in depth before one begins to gradually descend down a dark, long, cool corridor in order to produce a feeling of heaviness and make one feel as if they are entering a solid underground. From here it leads a person to a grand staircase that ascends into a space that feels light, open, and allows for the freedom to move around the space. By ascending yet again to a space of transition that returns you to the original volume, one encounters a vast field of cempazuchitl, a type of marigold, which are meant to be a symbol of guidance from the mortal world into the afterlife. This creates, overall, a sense of contemplation and a celebration of life.